THE SAILING PACKET. 185 



among the ricarrow guts ; but cabout six the fog cleared, and 

 revealed to them St Mary's Island close at hand. ''We 

 were such true sailors," he says, "that we immediately lost 

 sight of the danger we had escaped, delighted as we were 

 with the thoughts of being soon in port, and the uncommon 

 appearance of tlie land (if what is mostly rocks can be called 

 so) on each side of us as we passed. It was Crow's Sound ; 

 and I must own the sight of it gave me much pleasure, 

 wliich you will, and justly may in some measure attribute 

 to our sudden transition from a state of uncertainty to that 

 of safety, but not wholly ; for these islets and rocks edge 

 this Sound in an extremely pretty and very different manner 

 from anything I had seen before. The sides of these little 

 islands continue their greenness to the brim of the water, 

 where they are either surrounded by rocks of different shapes, 

 which start up here and there as you advance, like so many 

 enchanted castles, or by a verge of sand of the brightest 

 colour." 



If this was the passage made during gentle May, surely 

 we were very fortunate, in blustering March, to have got 

 over all our troubles in six hours. Shorter, our passage 

 undeniably was ; whether it was also sweeter, remains a 

 problem, towards the solution of which I will say thus much, 

 — that under no extension of euphuism could it bo called 

 sweet. In the first place, there had been no breakfiist to 

 begin the day ; and the Ariadne offered nothing in the cul- 

 inary department. Cheering Souchong, or aromatic ]\Iocha, 

 to warm the matutinal ventrals, was not to be thought of ; 

 we were even lucky to have a dry biscuit to munch in philo- 



